So I made a article kind of like this a couple of years ago when I started making vlogs about being a translator and for some reason it’s getting a ton of views right now and a lot of dislikes, and I think it’s because I didn’t really say Much in it, aside from I’ve, been on a streak now for 11 months, where I have had continuous work.

So, thankfully I don’t have to look for work anymore, which is amazing and that’s you know not very much information. So I wanted to go into further detail of the various places where I get translation jobs and also where you shouldn’t get translation jobs, so the main source, where I I have gotten most of my translating work, is indeed proz.Com. I’M going to go a little more into it, so Prost comm is a translating website.

It’S almost like social media like you, develop a profile for yourself and you can apply for jobs, and people can contact you to you know, say: hey: will you do this job? For me, but most what you do on that site is people that are interested in translators. Will post on on the message board like hey? I want this thing translated and then, if you’re interested, you will respond now, of course, they have more premium memberships, where you pay money, but then you’re allowed to see certain jobs before other translators are so you can attack them faster, which really can mean a lot In this business, especially if you’re going to translate legal medical, technical, a lot of those jobs are going to be like Monday, they’ll be like.

I need this translated by Wednesday and then, if you’re, the first person to jump on it, you get it, but usually somebody else gets it before you because, let’s be real, I live in California, and that means that most of these jobs that are posted when I’m Asleep are going to be taken away from me by people who live in Southeast Asia, nothing against Southeast Asians. It’S just the way time zones work, but I digress.

I do not have the Premium Membership, mostly because I’m not interested in those kinds of jobs that are just like super fast yeah. They need me today to translate something that’s due tomorrow and it’s legal or technical or medical. It’S like, I not interested in translating those things, they’re boring um, so the kinds of jobs that I have gotten from Prost comm have been once like the main company I work for now they actually reached out to me.

I saw their posting and I was going to reach out to them, but they actually wanted of reaching out to me instead and they were looking to hire translators to join their team, their database and I’ve gotten a couple more jobs very similar to that. Also, I’m on a couple. Other databases slash. I don’t work for these companies, I’m still technically an independent contractor, but I’m in their database and it’s really good to be like in somebody’s database like that, because that way you know, okay, they have paid me in the past.

They will pay be in the future. You know how invoicing is done. A lot of getting jobs translating is in, like figuring out how to invoice them figuring out how you’re paid figuring out, if you’re, going to get paid figuring out how they, like their documents, delivered figuring out. What kind of software they’d like you to use, and it’s like if you work for the set company and it’s recurring work, you don’t have to deal with all that every single time so yeah my main agency’s companies, for whom I work, I have gotten in touch With them through prose comm, either they reached out to me because they saw my profile or I reached out to them similar to pros comm.

It’S another website, that’s been in existence for a while, but I just hadn’t looked into it recently. I experienced a dry spell in work, so I had to start applying for more translating jobs and looking for more jobs, and so I joined translators, cafe.Com and that’s another great site, similar to pros calm and like pros calm. You can also like pay money and get more perks. I chose not to, and one thing that I like about translator cafe is they’ll.

Send you they’ll email, you alerts like if a job is posted in my language pair and my language prayer is just Japanese. English. Lots of other translators have multiple language pairs like they might be: Japanese, English, English, Japanese, German to English, Arabic to English. I don’t know like a lot of translators. You’Ll see they have a lot of pairs listed. I just have one pair I digress again anyway.

Translators, cafe.Com, similar to Proust, calm. I’Ve only been using the site for about a month, and I inquired for one job. It’S again recurring work for a company, and I heard back from them this morning actually and I’m going to do a translating test for them and if I meet the requirements I will start working for them. So that’s exciting and I got that through translators, cafe.Com. So those two websites – and I’m sure there are probably other websites like that you can do a search for them or, if you know about them, put them in the comments so that other aspiring translators and myself can see them.

Another place that I have gotten translation work is, I will go on places where I know that they have had someone translate their material and I’m going to use crunchyroll as an example I readed anime on crunchyroll comm. I know they must have translators from Japanese English. Translating their anime, otherwise how would they have all that translated anime on their website, and so I did not okay.

What I did not do is, I did not just blindly send them out at hey, I’m not translator and here’s my resume and you should hire me. I looked on their website to see if they were hiring and I waited and then when I saw that they were hiring translators, then I sent them. You know cover letter friendly email resume. This is who I am and a flight to work that way. So that’s another way that I’ve gotten work.

What I used to do in the past – and it was not successful – was I’m like. Oh here’s, some anime companies, I’m just going to send them by my information and my resume, and it’s like that. Doesn’T do anything all that does is annoy them and if they actually do remember you like oh you’re, that asshole, who just like sent me something I didn’t ask for when they do need a translator later they might not hire you.

So don’t do that, but you can look, and recently I looked on Netflix’s site to see if they needed translators, because they obviously have a lot of their programs translated, and I saw that they were looking for some kind of translating job. But it was only in LA like I’d have to move to LA which I don’t want to do, because I hate LA so that’s out. But that’s another thing: you can do to look for work, just look for websites or companies or just any place where you know that they need translators and just see if they have openings for translators.

Another place that I have gotten translation work is from friends. This might sound like a longshot, but it’s extremely valuable. I keep saying this to have lots of friends and to have lots of acquaintances and to be on social media and be active on there as much as I hate to like support social media. It in this day and age, like you, got to be active on social media, and you got to hold on to your contacts, because you have no idea where work is going to come from and case in point an old friend of mine like he.

He does freelance film stuff and there was a documentary that he needed some Japanese translating for a few months ago, and he reached out to me – and I translated it. So that’s another place where I get work, another place where I’ve gotten translating work. Speaking of social media is actually kind of through this YouTube blog by building up a following of subscribers and people who read these articles.

Thank you by the way, but by building up that Network and having a Twitter and a Facebook, and one of my followers on Twitter recently, like commented, like you know, had me in the comments of a tweet that was tweeted by this company. That was looking for. Japanese translators and he’s like hey like because the the call for the job was in Japanese. It was like hey. Can you read this, then you know, do you want to translate, you should apply and so the my follower was like.

I don’t know what this means. You know – maybe maybe Sarah Kate Translate knows what it is and I saw it and I was like oh it’s an offer for a job Thanks and I applied, and I heard back from then and I might start working for them as well. Another place that I have gotten not specifically Japanese, translating work but work through my fluency in Japanese was the tutoring website, wasn’t calm. There are other tutoring websites out there, but I happened to use this one in the past and I put on my profile that I speak Japanese and that I could teach Japanese and I tutored a couple students in Japanese just a little bit another place that I Have gotten translating work is from my dad and for him I did not get very much at all.

If I had chosen to go into German translation instead of Japanese translation, German was actually my first second language. I could have gotten like lots more work from him because he’s a German to English translator, but I did get a couple little German to English, translating jobs through him. They were actually sent to him, but he was like. I don’t want to do this. It’S like. Hardly any work – and it’s really easy so I’ll give it to my daughter and then through that same agency.

You know they very very, very rarely need Japanese to English work. It’S pretty much almost exclusively German to English, but they got. You know a couple like bank statements and death certificates and I translated those as well. No, these are the places that I have found work and that’s not the only places that you can find work. There are so many other places you can work if, if you’re bilingual, as an interpreter, I mean you can work at the airport, you can work for tourism.

You can just work like in-house as a translator for various different companies if they do any kind of international business and those are the kind of jobs you know, you’ll have to just look for them. Keep your eyes scanning do searches, but if you’re like me and you’re more interested in freelance work, especially the kind of work that you can do on your couch in your jammies at home, it’s usually better to look for work through these kinds of agencies.

That will give you recurring jobs, hopefully and to get a lot of agencies, don’t just work for one, but have a few of them in your back pocket so that you can get work from one when another one is not giving you work. If you guys reading this article, have any other sources of where you get translating work, leave them in the comments so that we can all learn and what you go ahead and add me on Facebook or Twitter at Sarah Kay translate because, like I said it is Genuinely very valuable to have a big network of people, and once again, I really appreciate having you guys my network of people looking out for me, bye, bye and time to go back on my couch

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